Irish general election, 1957

The Irish general election, 1957 was held on 1 January 1957. The people of Ireland elected a new Dail Eireann, and the ruling Fianna Fail party was ousted from power by Fine Gael in an election contested mainly by Fine Gael and the Irish Labor Party.

History
In 1952, Fianna Fail survived a near-loss to the Irish Labor Party, which had almost occurred due to the party's supposed inability to curb the Fiachsteria debt crisis. The near-success of a socialist electoral victory was a wake-up call to both Fianna Fail and its fellow center-right rival, Fine Gael, which had been out of commission since the disastrous 1950 election. The election brought about a political realignment of the two parties, both of which decided to support austerity measures. Fianna Fail's austerity programme, overseen by Taoiseach Colm O'Farrell, wiped out foreign debt by April 1956, although Ireland had to declare bankruptcy in the process, and the upper and middle classes suffered from high tax rates. Fine Gael, the party of the middle class, therefore had a support base upon which it could rebuild its strength ahead of the next election.

The post-1952 consensus between the two major center-right parties allowed for four years of tranquility. On 1 July 1956, the election season began. Fianna Fail quickly found itself at a disadvantage, as the popular Labour Party, which had nearly won in 1952, became the main challenger to Fine Gael, which championed the anti-socialist cause. The Labour Party campaigned on anti-austerity, protectionist, and socialist values, while Fine Gael supported restraining (but not abolishing) austerity measures, free trade, and reformism. Many Fianna Fail voters switched their allegiance to Fine Gael in order to prevent the socialists from taking power, fearing that a socialist takeover could threaten Irish neutrality in the Cold War.

The Labour Party performed even better than it had in 1952 in terms of counties won, but their majorities were slim, and their overall vote count was 4% less than what it had been the previous election. Fine Gael won just over 32% of the vote to Labour's nearly 29%, and it relied on its alliance with Sinn Fein to return to power, just as it had done in the 1949 election.

The election was a success for Fine Gael, which was able to return from obscurity as a reinvented, forward-thinking conservative party. Fintan O'Dowd became the new Taoiseach, heading a Fine Gael-Sinn Fein coalition, the Gluaiseacht Poblachtach Forásach (GPF), which would go on to adopt many progressive reforms and support Irish republicanism.

Results

 * Fine Gael glyph.png Fine Gael - 34.36%


 * Irish Labor Party glyph.png Irish Labor Party - 30.46%


 * Sinn Fein logo.jpg Sinn Fein - 18.01%


 * Fianna Fail glyph.png Fianna Fail - 17.15%